diverse children sitting on large books with activist signs illustration
(Parent)hetical, Most Read

100 Children’s Books For Blossoming Activists

We were gifted 6 copies of the children’s book A is for Activist when I was pregnant with our kid. So when I come across a progressive parent who has not heard of that book, I am admittedly surprised . . . Until I remind myself that I live in a Brooklyn bubble.

From the day our Sun came home from the hospital, we have read to him at minimum 3 books a night. He has more children’s books than toys. And yes, I realize all the cliches and stereotypes about Brooklyn and/or South-Asian-American parents have just reared their obnoxious heads. And, this is our truth.

Books were my salvation, joy and escape during childhood and they still are. Plus, I was recently identified as a bibliobibuli, so I’m just gonna lean in and claim it all with 0 shame.

After a few community requests, I put together a list of 100 progressive children’s books that center Own Voices authors. This list includes James Baldwin’s only children’s book that has just been published for the first time in 40 years! Enjoy!

Caveats, warnings, fine print

  • This list is in no way exhaustive, please add recs in the comments;
  • Having said that, there are some books that I kept out on purpose and am happy to discuss why;
  • Age ranges are subjective and limiting so they are not included. For example, my 3.5 yr old has always enjoyed books that do not comport to his age. . . You all know your own kids, they are limitless, go with your gut;
  • I recommend Indie Bound as a way to find books from your local independent bookstore. My favorites are Greenlight Bookstore and Center for Fiction, both located in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. Yet Indie Bound is not always on point. There have been many books that have not appeared to be locally available on the Indie Bound site, but then I’ll go to the bookstore and the book is there (just happened last week);
  • Before someone @ me about using Amazon links, I want to be clear about why I did: 1) Some of these radical children’s books are self-published and are only available on Amazon because of this, this and more. 2) I think the descriptions and comments can be useful in choosing books. 3) We are living in a global pandemic and I don’t know where people are located, so I’m trying to be useful and realistic;
  • The list is ordered alphabetically.

Abuela

abuela and nieta flying over NYC buildings in fantasy children's book with Spanish phrases
Flying over NYC with Abuela

A is for Activist

A children's book for activist parents and their kids
A classic for activist parents and their kids
Our Sun started to like it when he turned 2

Ada Twist, Scientist

A young Black girl is conducting a science experiment in this fun children's book
Science experiments, STEM and fun

A Different Pond

Vietnamese grandfather fishing on a pond with grandson on a starry night.
Vietnamese dad and son on old and new culture

All Because You Matter

Illustration of a young Black boy with colorful masks, faces and the night sky in the background.
A lyrical love letter to Black children

An ABC of Equality

ABC in large block print with diverse children's book characters climbing on it to symbolize equality.
Accessible social justice concepts for kids

Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao

Chinese girl and her cat sitting on top of a huge bao in the sky.
Amy learns to make homemade bao

And Tango Makes Three 

Two male penguins embrace at the Central Park Zoo with their baby penguin between them on this children's book cover based on a true story.
True story of two male penguins in Central Park

Antiracist Baby

A young Black baby is in her Black father's baby carrier with a power to the people fist in the air.
Accessible antiracist language for babies

Baba, What Does My Name Mean?

Young Palestinian refugee girl carries memories of Palestine and culture above her head.
A young Palestinian discusses culture and return

Bee-Bim Bop!

Young korean girl prepares bee-bim bop with her mother in this lyrical children's book.
Bouncy rhythmic text while cooking

Bilal Cooks Daal

Bilal and his two friends mix ingredients together and cook daal.
Bilal and his friends cook daal

Birth of the Cool

Illustration of Miles Davis when he was a boy over when he was an adult in a children's book about how he found his sound.
How Miles Davis found his sound

Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa

Celiz Cruz with a beautiful bird coming out of her mouth and illustrations of Cuba in the background.
A glimpse into Celia’s childhood in Cuba

C is for Consent

A brown kid and a white kid holding hands.
It is ok to say no to hugs and kisses

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type

Cows typing in an effort to strike and unionize.
Collective bargaining and unionized cows

Consent (for Kids!)

A gender-neutral and race-neutral kid says they are the ruler of their own body while wearing a crown and cape.
Consent, bodily autonomy and self-respect

Community Policing and Other Fairy Tales

Comics of community members working to defund the police.
Comics and stories for a police-free world

Counting on Community

A brown fist in the air with a thumbs up sign as a wall is broken.
Inspiration to build community

Crown: An Ode To The Fresh Cut

Young Black boy with a fresh cut looks at the camera with one eye as he feels fresh.
Magic at the barbershop leads to a crown

Curls

Illustration of a cute young Black girl with a big head of curls who smiles coyly.
Joyful and playful book on curls and braids

Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers

How she organized for migrant workers’ rights

Drawn Together

Vietnamese grandfather hugs his grandson while both of their eyes are closed and superheroes are in the background.
Language barrier turns into magical bond

Dreamers

Profile of a Latine mother holding her baby with a blazing sun in the background and butterfly and flowers near them.
Home is about the things you always carry

Enough! 20 Protestors Who Changed America

Tommie Smith and John Carlos black power fist at the 1968 Olympics as the cover of a children's book on protestors.
From Tubman to Jazz Jennings to Kaepernick . . .

Everything Naomi Loved

Young girl on the top of a residential building, imagining her community in a children's book about gentrification.
City block is changing, but community stays

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners 

Profile of pretty East Asian girl with long flowing black hair holding a pink flower that slowly loses its petals.
Self-love and empowerment when one is unique

Fauja Singh Keeps Going

Fauja Singh running a marathon at 101 years old.
True story of a 101 yr old marathon runner

Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns

Illustration of the feathered serpent and the five suns from mosoamerica.
How the gods of mesoamerica created humans

Finish The Fight!

Women of color suffragettes who fought for the right to vote in 1919 but have not yet been recognized.
Stories of the forgotten suffragettes

F is for Feelings

Six kids of different races, ethnicities and abilities stand and sit next to each other in a children's book on feelings.
Teaches emotions from a young age and it works

Fish for Jimmy

A Japanese boy leans over into water and grabs fish.
True story of hope in a US Internment camp

Freedom Soup

Haitian grandmother dancing with her back towards us with her hands in the air, while her granddaughter dances with her in the kitchen.
Haitian independence story told through soup

Fry Bread

A Native American girl holds a bowl of fry bread and a baby eating a piece of the bread.
Glimpse of a modern Native American family

Furqan’s First Flat Top

Young afrolatino boy sitting nervously at the barber shop with the barber about to buzz his head and the profile of his father sitting next to him.
A great book about a first haircut

Granddaddy’s Turn

Black man in a suit and hat walks with a young Black boy to vote with a white police man in the background in the cover for a children's book on voting rights.
True story about segregation and voting rights

Hair Love

Pretty Black girl with afro, wearing a white shirt and purple cape looks down over her dad who is in corn rows and smiles at him.
Dad helps to create a hip and pretty hairstyle

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez looks into the distance with a farm in the background.
How a shy boy turns into an inspiring activist

Hip Hop Speaks To Children

A brown girl holds hands with an East Asian boy as they fly above city buildings with their eyes closed.
An amazing poetry anthology for kids

Hush! A Thai Lullaby

Thai grandmother with wrap on her head hushes animals in the distance as she holds a sleeping baby.
The animals stay quiet for the baby

I Am Enough

Beautiful young Black girl with a purple headband and large kinky hair smiling head on.
Lyrical and pretty illustrations for self-esteem

I Am Perfectly Designed 

Queer Black father sitting on a park bench with his Black son discussing life.
Simple and sweet dad and son book

I Am Smart, I Am Blessed, I Can Do Anything!

Young Black boy with arms in the air full of hope and exuberance.
An affirmation book for little kids

If You Look Up To The Sky

Back of a Black girl wearing a pink skirt and purple skirt looking up into a starry night sky.
How the sky interconnects us to generations

I Know My Rights: Bill of Rights

Black family holds the Bill of Rights and looks confidently ahead
The Bill of Rights accessible for kids

It’s Just a Plant

Plants growing in a garden in a children's book about marijuana.
So many in jail but it is just a plant

Jabari Jumps

Young Black boy with goggles stands at the edge of a high diving board about to jump into a pool with trees and a city in the background.
Encouragement and courage to face a fear

Julián is a Mermaid

Young AfroLatine boy dressed as a mermaid stands proudly in a this children's book about gender identity and finding oneself at a young age.
Abuela embraces non-conforming kid

Just A Minute

A Mexican abuela with dark skin sits with four of her family members with a sly face as a calavera looks down in this bilingual children's book about counting.
Calaveras + Mexican culture + counting

Just Ask!

A young boy pushes a wheelbarrow on a hill with flowers in the words in a children's book about ableism.
The (dis)abilities and powers kids have

La Frontera: El Viaje Con Papa

A Mexican boy and his father walk on a field near a river as they cross the border from Mexico to Texas.
Crossing the border from Mexico to Texas

Last Stop on Market Street 

A Black grandmother gets off of a public bus with her grandson as they walk to a food pantry in this children's book about poverty and class.
Beautiful story while headed to a soup kitchen

Let The Children March

Young Black children at the frontlines of a civil rights march in 1963.
A story of children who marched for civil rights

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

Basquiat dragon with crown in a children's book that incorporates Maya Angelou poems.
Poem and illustrations about courage

Little Man, Little Man

James Baldwin wrote a children’s book!

Loves Makes a Family

Four families of mixed races and genders, non-traditional families with rainbows and hearts sprinkled around.
Love makes a family not the composition

Magic Ramen

Momofuku Ando with a large pot of ramen on the top of his head.
True story about instant ramen and hunger

Magic Trash

Tyree Guyton a Black man with his arms raised with paintbrushes with the Heidelberg Project from Detroit in the background.
Story of the Heidelberg Project in Detroit

Max: Que Hago Sin Mi Tableta?

Young Latine boy running with a laptop tablet in his hand and eyes closed in the first children's book about balancing play and technology.
Children’s book on balancing play and tech
Click Here for English Version

Missing Daddy

Young Black girl with dreds blows a dandelion into the distance in a children's book about parents who are incarcerated.
Missing and visiting daddy who is incarcerated

M is for Movement

A group of children of various races on bikes and in the background is a large group of protestors building a social justice movement.
A child born at the dawn of a social movement

My Papi Has a Motorcycle

Memories of a working-class immigrant family

My Rainbow

Young Black trans kid who has a rainbow wig made of flowers.
Mom makes rainbow wig for transdaughter

Oh, The  Things We’re For!

Young brown girl with a fierce and determined face has a power fist looking at the camerak.
A lyrical take on what progressives stand for

O is for Old School

A pacifier on a gold chain in a children's book that is a throwback to hiphop using the alphabet.
Alphabetic journey through hip hop phrases

100 Days Inside

A young Black girl holds the face of her Black mother as they lovingly look at each other in a children's book about being an only child during the Coronavirus pandemic.
An only child during the Coronavirus pandemic

Rad American Women A-Z

10 Radical American women illustrated with colorful boxes behind them in a children's book about radical feminists.
Rad womxn like Angela Davis to Yori Kuchiyama

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean Michel-Basquiat

Young artist Jean-Michel Basquiat looking into the distance with flags and art behind him.
Kids don’t need to stay in the lines to succeed

Radical Feminist Coloring Book

Angela Davis with an afro speaking into a microphone in a radical feminist children's book.
Proceeds go to the Alipato Project

Rainbow Stew

Three young Black children laughing in a garden holding a bucket of freshly picked vegetables with a rainbow and sky in the background.
Lyrical, joyful day in the garden picking veggies

Saturday

Young Black girl and her mother hold hands and skip happily on a street with houses in the background.
When plans don’t work out, we have each other

Separate Is Never Equal

Sylvia Mendez and other Mexican children segregated and separate from white children in California during 1947.
True story of segregation in CA schools in 1947

Shirley Chisholm Is a Verb

Shirley Chisholm stands proud and fierce looking straight ahead with her arm in the air with a peace sign.
The first Black woman in the US Congress

Sitti’s Secrets

Young Palestinian girl looks wistfully while seated thinking about her trip to Palestine with a starry night sky in the background.
Love between family in Palestine and the US

Somos Como Las Nubes

A line of undocumented children from Central America are scene crossing the border into the US while walking in a line. In the foreground there are two young children sleeping on the ground under the moon in a children's book about unaccompanied and undocumented children crossing the border.
Poetry on Central American kids leaving home

Stolen Words

Cree Indigenous Grandfather hugs his grandaughter with his eyes closed as she looks at him in a children's book about Canada's residential schools and how Cree people's language survives despite colonization.
Cree survives despite genocide and colonization

Tar Beach

Two young Black girls lay on a blanket on a Harlem rooftop looking at the stars while 4 adults sit at a table eating. A Black girl is flying above them all in this dream scene by Faith Ringgold.
A girl who dreams of flying above Harlem

The Boy and the Bindi

A South Asian boy looks peaceful as he wears a yellow bindi on his forehead and a colorful galaxy spins in the background.
A South Asian boy wears a bindi, gifted by mom

The Day You Begin

A young Black girl with natural hair looks into a room nervously.
When outsiders become friends

The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish

Three drag queens of different genders and races swish their hips in a children's book about drag queens.
The Wheels on the Bus . . . in drag

The Most Beautiful Thing

A young Hmong girl looks up at her grandmother wistfully in this children's book about how poor people can have a lot of wealth.
A dollar poor Hmong family’s tale of wealth

The Name Jar

A young Korean girl with short hair looks into a glass jar placed on a table with pieces of paper in it.
A Korean girl who just moved to the US

The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story

Two Korean mermaid divers or Haenyeo swim in the ocean with goggles and wetsuits and fish around them, while other divers and mermaids are in the background.
A story about Korean mermaid divers

The Princess and the Warrior

A Mexican princess and Mexican warrior hold hands while Mexico City's two volcanoes and the star and moon are in the background.
The legend behind Mexico City’s two volcanoes

The Proudest Blue

A young Black girl is in a little white boat in a large blue ocean that becomes a Black woman wearing the blue ocean as her hijab.
A story of siblings, bullying and pride in oneself

The Youngest Marcher

Audrey Faye Hendricks stands proud with an American Flag as she is the youngest marcher during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
True story of the 9 yr old who marched

They, She, He, Easy as ABC

Four young Black and brown children gleeful and joyful in purple clothing in a children's book about inclusive gender pronouns.
Inclusive pronouns alongside the alphabet

They Call Me Mix / Me Llaman Maestre

The back of a human form with clouds and rainbows shooting from the stomach in a bilingual Spanish-English children's book about trans people of color.
Bilingual book centering trans people of color

This is the Rope: A Story from The Great Migration

Young Black girl with braids jumps rope on the ground in a children's book about the Great Migration.
A story about The Great Migration for kids

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga

8 Cherokee Native Americans walk around a bonfire in a children's book about Cherokee celebrations.
Cherokee celebrations and experiences

We Are Water Protectors

Young Indigenous girl looks fierce and proud carrying a feather while in the ocean with the moon behind her and shadows of community hold hands in the background.
Inspired by indigenous-led movements on water

What Do You Do With An Idea?

Young Japanese boy looks at a golden egg which represents an idea that is in the grass.
As confidence grows, an idea grows

What We Believe

Young Black boy looks ahead with a shirt that has a power fist and heart. In the background there are many kids of color with protest signs in a children's book about the principles of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Principles of the Black Lives Matter movement

When I Eat Plants

Young girl with her eyes closed holds a pear in each hand and has a pear on her head in a children's book about plant-based diets.
Great for vegetarian and vegan families

When The Beat Was Born

DJ Kool Hero spins a record in a children's book about the DJ from the Bronx who transformed culture and the world through hip hop.
The DJ who transformed culture and the world

Who Are You?

Brown girl climbing a tree while a gender non-comforming young person swings and two young Black children play on the ground.
A kids guide on gender identity

Whoever You Are

A gender non-conforming adult holds four children from around the world in front of planet earth.
Around the world kids are alike and different

Woke Baby

Black baby has fists in the air in power fists.
Woke babies cry out for justice

Yo Soy Muslim: A Father’s Letter To His Daughter

Latinx Muslim father looks lovingly at daughter with flowers in the background.
Muslim Latine poet on multicultural identities

Your Name Is A Song

Black woman wearing a turban has her arms out like a bird in a street with her young daughter mimicking her with a beatiful streetscape.
How a girl learns to love her name

Coming Soon:

A Fairy Tale Revolution

I am really excited about A Fairy Tale Revolution books. But, it’s *really* tough to find all 4 in the US right now. The Penguin site only ships within the UK. Let me know if you hear of a way to order them, please!

What did I miss? Put it in the comments!

December 29, 2020 by
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